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Contents

Objective

The PFDI-20 is both a symptom inventory and a measure of the degree of bother and distress (quality-of-life) caused by pelvic floor symptoms. It is a short-form version of the Pelvic Floor Distress Inventory.[1]

Intended Population

Method of Use

The PFDI-20 includes 20 questions and 3 scales. Each of the 3 scales is scored from 0 (least distress) to 100 (greatest distress). The sum of the scores of these 3 scales serves as the overall summary score of the PFDI-20 and ranges from 0 - 300. The 3 scales include questions taken from the following widely used outcome measures: Urinary Distress Inventory - 6 questions, Pelvic Organ Prolapse Distress Inventory - 6 questions, and Colorectal-Anal Distress Inventory - 8 questions.[1]

Validity

The PFDI-20 demonstrates construct validity as it demonstrates a significant association with appropriate measures of symptom severity and pelvic floor diagnoses.[1]

Responsiveness

Each of the 3 scales of the PFDI-20 demonstrated moderate to excellent responsiveness with effect size and standardized response mean values ranging from .70 to 1.28. The sensitivity of the PFDI-20 as a whole was excellent with an effect size of 1.48 P < .0001 and standardized response mean of 1.09 P < .0001. The ability of the PFDI-20 to discriminate between subjects who indicated that they were "worse" after surgery from those who indicated they were "better" was excellent with c-statistic of .95.[1]

Miscellaneous

The strength of the PFDI-20 is that it is a short form that gives a comprehensive assessment of the effect of pelvic floor disorders on the quality of life of women, rather than assessing just one aspect of pelvic floor function such as urinary incontinence. A more generic quality-of-life form as the SF-36 has demonstrated poor responsiveness in patients undergoing treatment for urinary incontinence. In these patient populations, it may be important to use both a generic quality-of-life instrument and a condition-specific instrument that has demonstrated responsiveness. The PFDI-20 is easy to use in both clinical and research settings.[1]

The MCID (clinically meaningful change in quality of life[2]) needs to be studied in larger populations.[1]

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